Kind of Reality
by K. Vengeance
Summary: It's been five years since graduation. Where are they now?
1. How Not to Start Your Day

Disclaimer:You know what I own and what I don't.

A/N:So I don't know much about Korean, Japanese, or Chinese culture, so I'm just going to write, and you can convert it to whatever lifestyle you want. (par example: I'll write like they live in the U.S. and you can imagine them living in Japan and going home to a Japanese house, when I say apartment – make sense?)

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Kyo stretched, yawning. He ruffled the hair out of his eyes. '_I need a haircut'_, he thought, as he pulled a particularly long bang down over his eyes, and nose. It was at that moment that he realized he also needed a shower.

Pushing himself up, out of the over-stuffed chair, he zombie-walked his way to the bathroom. Not yet awake, he dimmed the bathroom light switch to half mast, and turned the shower dial to boil. While he waited for the water to heat up, he leaned over the sink and put his forehead to the cool mirror glass. He started making a mental list of things he needed to do.

Get a hair cut

'_How will I ever find the time_,' he thought, scratching his jaw.

Shave

The steam surrounded the mirror, lining his face, and he deemed the water hot enough to enter.

After his shower, he felt slightly better. He trudged to the kitchen and rummaged through the fridge, picking out an unnamed white box from the back. He grabbed a fork, and started munching on the left over, sitting on one of the bar stools at the table.

After a moment, he heard heels coming down the sidewalk. Listening closely, he heard the screen door slide open, then closed, followed by a thud, and then moan. _'Tohru is home,'_ he smiled at himself for being able to tell her entrance.

A few seconds later, she waltzed around the corner, a briefcase in one hand, water down her blouse, and a rabbit at her heels.

He smiled, the food in his mouth poking around the corners of his teeth.

She smiled half-heartedly and disappeared into her room.

Kyo sat staring at the rabbit in silence, not even chewing his food. The rabbit stared back, unblinking, until POOF! Momiji, pounced on Kyo.

"Gerrof me!" he yelled, teetering on his stool. "And put some clothes on!"

Momiji laughed, running away. He emerged shortly after fully dressed, and rosy-cheeked.

About that time, Tohru came out of her room, in a more relaxed weekend – approved outfit.

He waved to her with his fork, and she half smiled, picking up her own fork and gestured to the box. Kyo nodded, and she dug her fork into the box.

They didn't need to talk, each understood the other's day. Tohru had had a bad day at work, and Kyo had just gotten up. Momiji sat on the other side of Tohru, rocking back and forth.

After ten forkfuls in silence, Kyo said, "Mo, why are you here?"

Momiji smiled, rocking faster, "I came to see Tohru!" then he threw his arms around her and poofed.

Tohru barely had time to scream, "NO –" before he lunged, and her fork went flying into the air, only to land on the carpet.

She folded her arms on the counter and put her head down.

Kyo was still getting used to the practical Tohru. She was still sweet and usually clueless, but in the last five years she had become more serious, more independent. He blamed her job.

But it wasn't all that bad. After all, she wasn't getting hurt from minor accidents nearly as much.

He bent down and picked up the mess, then picked up the rabbit, and "gently" threw it outside.

"I love Momiji," Tohru said, diving her fork back into the container, "But he's just so energetic . . ." she sighed, shaking her head. She also thought he was a little too old to be pouncing on people with no warning, or regard for who might see his "curse," among other things . . .

Kyo smiled, '_Tohru's too nice to say when she's annoyed with anyone. Poor girl . . .'_

"You know, you could just tell him to go away and he would. His feelings would probably not even be hurt." Kyo said, half under his breath. "He'd probably leave for a whole month, until you said it was okay, so's not to make you sad or whatever."

Tohru gave and exasperated smile, not quite getting what Kyo meant.

Momiji, however, decided to go home. He poked his head in, first to get his clothes, then to explain that Momo and her mother were going to the zoo, and he was supposed to be at home, to avoid her seeing him on her way there.

Tohru knew Momiji was really going to watch Momo – his father and mother had no idea him and her were friends.

"So . . . What happened today?" Kyo asked, finishing off the contents of the box.

"Oh, nothing really," Tohru said, smiling reassuringly. "I think I just miss the sun." she looked waywardly outside, to see nothing but rain clouds – always rain clouds.

"Its still there," he said," just behind the clouds."

She laughed. "Yeah, that's a nice way to look at it."

She paused, looking from him to the wall, the floor, him, the window again . . .

"Otherwise are you okay?" he asked, trying not to be obvious about his concern.

"Yeah. It's life. It's kind of . . . reality. Just have to get used to responsibility. But I'm fine, Kyo!" she smiled – convincingly – for him at least.

She got up and brought the box to the garbage, tossing the forks in the sink.

As she cleaned them off, she slipped out of smiling for a moment. She had been having a lot of bad days. Ever since Yuki left . . .

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A/N: Well, that's the end of the first, and not last.  Stay tuned ………..


	2. What Things May Come

Disclaimer: copy and paste disclaimer here

A/N: hey hey, enjoy

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Tohru pushed back the screen door to the living room, tipping the tray balancing on her shoulder. It came perilously close to toppling over, but her other hand steadied it.

She glided over to the table and set down the lunch. Uo and Hana were already seated.

It was always the three of them, never just Uo and Tohru, or Hana and Tohru – always Uo, Tohru, and Hana.

Tohru sighed, she knew they always came in a group to try to make it less obvious they were watching out for her, protecting her. But she had figured that out a long time ago. _They should know better. I'm not going to suddenly explode, or cry, or run away. _ But she appreciated their attempts.

_I can only feel it when they aren't here. _ She thought, breaking away from private reflections.

"Thank you Tohru, it looks amazing!" Uo chimed. Her comments felt increasingly chipper as the days went on.

"As always." Hana added, still in her glassy, thick voice.

They sat in silence for a bit. Conversation was lacking lately, and it was becoming harder and harder to find new, happy, neutral things to talk about.

Tohru let out a deep breath, setting her glass down, rather sharply. "I know you think that not talking about everything will numb the pain. But you can't protect me – you shouldn't. What happened happened, and I've faced that. But I need you guys back to normal. Because when you pretend nothing happened, you magnify the fact that now everything is different."

Uo and Hana blinked a few times, exchanging glances, though careful to avoid Tohru's.

Finally Hana said, "Tohru, we just want to make sure you're ok. And we hate that you've been through so much crap in your life. "

"I can't pretend the crap didn't happen. But I am ok. I did get through it. And now I need you to get through it too. So that we _can _talk about scary movies, or violence on the news, or love stories . . ." she trailed off, squishing a cookie crumb between her thumb and forefinger.

"Thank God! Because I saw this amazing movie the other day . . ." Uo burst in, going off about a slasher flick.

Tohru smiled – really smiled. She relaxed a little, and enjoyed the first normal moment in a long time.

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	3. Days of our Lives

Disclaimer: still not mine.

A/N: Woo! So that last chapter was a "get it out of the way" kind of thing, sorry about the length – or lack thereof.

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_He turned the corner, taking each step carefully. He knew what was waiting for him but he was terrified._

Tohru robotically picked up piece after piece of popcorn, eating intensely rhythmically.

_He opened the door, and it moaned painfully loud in the echo – y hallway. As he looked inside he found - !_

"Who's he?"

Tohru screamed and popcorn flew everywhere.

Kyo jumped. "Jeez!"

She took a few breaths before looking back at him. Her eyes were wide enough to watch the t.v. in.

"Sorry . . ." he mumbled, plopping on the couch beside her.

She whipped around, trying to focus on her show, but the stress was gone from the moment. Disappointed that the outcome of the door-open was just a witch-woman, and not Kan's long lost wife, Tohru started to pick up kernels.

"So," Kyo said, throwing popcorn into the air and trying to catch it in his mouth, "is this what you do all day?"

"Um," she said, embarrassed at the situation, "n-no, not really." She swatted a kernel out of her hair – one of Kyo's misses.

He sighed irritated, bending down to help her. Kyo watched her out of the top of his eyes. She seemed overly intent on picking up the mess, not even noticing that he had stopped picking up and was blatantly watching her.

"Tohru," he whispered, glancing at her worriedly.

She kept picking up popcorn.

He reached out and stopped her hands.

She blinked hard, before looking at him, deserting the kernels.

He didn't say anything, just watched her struggle to smile; cover things up.

The room felt quiet, even the t.v. seemed muted.

Kyo had no idea what he was doing, why he insisted on bringing it up. He just hated un-resolve. He honestly had nothing to say to her to make it better, but in the moment – every moment – he thought that the words would just come.

They failed him once again. Only this time words weren't needed.

Tohru, her fists clenched, jammed one down on her leg and the other to her face. She sobbed, and Kyo couldn't say anything. He just watched as she sobbed, her body trembling.

Eventually Tohru stood up shakily, regaining composure. She smiled quickly, her old-fashioned smile, and left to the kitchen.

_Why do I stay here? God! I'm such an idiot! _ He thought, letting the door shut noisily behind him as he left D8.

Tohru expected the door slam, but she jumped anyway. She stood numb in the kitchen for a moment, concentrating on the buzz of the t.v.

Then, she laughed.

Harder and harder, each gasping breath bigger than the previous until she fell to the cool floor, holding her sides.

_Here I am, watching a soap opera! My LIFE is a soap opera! God, how lame!_

She breathed heavily, letting the tile calm her. She found she was exhausted. Closing her eyes, she steadied her breathing.

"You really are foolish," Yuki said, smiling down at her, extending his hand.

She took it, getting up.

He brushed some snow off her back and out of her hair. She smiled up at him, admiring how the snow stuck to his eyelashes and cheeks.

He smiled back warmly. "Can we go inside now?" He asked with mock irritation.

"It's the first snow!" She teased, "isn't it beautiful?" She reached down and threw a pile of the fluffy ice into the air.

He couldn't help but laugh with her - it was contagious.

He took her hands, guiding them away from the snow bank. She smiled proudly at him.

Tohru slowly erased all traces of her smile. She quickly got up and went to turn the channel.

_The news, good, s_he thought. She resumed picking up popcorn.

The weatherman's voice drifted into her thoughts.

-_Tomorrow will be a high of 54, and a low of 33 with a chance of a light snowfall toni– _

Tohru dived at the t.v. almost knocking it over trying to turn it off.

"News bad!" she said.

Her palm ached. She had a cut from the t.v. cabinet. "Great," she mumbled.

She went to the kitchen and dug around in the drawers until she found a band-aid.

She looked outside and could see a rather impressive sunset. Leaning over the sink, she sighed.

The clock said 7:16.

"That's good enough for me," she said, heading for bed. _There's no point in finishing today, _she thought, _it's been bad enough._

"Ten-o'three! Come on!" Tohru said to her ceiling. Apparently, when you want to sleep is when you never can. She rolled over to her side and glared at the window.

Snowing.

"Perfect," she said, "I hate having memories," she thought, but then took it back.

_Without them, I don't think I could keep going._

She heard the door click, and shut her eyes. Pretending was the only way to handle Kyo recently. Pretending to smile, to laugh, to sleep . . .

"Tohru?" he said softly, waiting. She didn't move, just kept up her steady breathing. "I . . ." he stammered. "I know this is hard for you. I'm sorry. But - . . ." he ended. She could see him rubbing his neck with one arm, as if it would prompt the "right thing" to say.

Her silence was good enough for Kyo, and he retreated thinking her asleep. Tohru shut her eyes tightly.

"I'm sorry Kyo, I'm so sorry . . ." she whispered, silent tears falling.

_What's wrong with me? This is selfish . . . _Light from a passing car lit up her night stand. Her mom's picture was staring at her, telling her it was ok. That she loved her.

"Sorry mom, you didn't raise me to be this way," she said, stroking the picture frame.

She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and wiping her cheeks. She resolved to be different tomorrow. To move on, so that everyone else could move on, and stop hurting.

_It's up to me,_ she concluded. _Tomorrow, Kyo Uo, Hana, Momiji . . . everyone can breath again because I will let go. I will completely let go, and live again. And not in the past. I officially move on._

The snow fell lightly outside. Tohru, for the first time in a long time, found it peaceful.

A tiny speck fell onto his coat. Then another, and another.

He touched one, melting it instantly.

"Great," he sighed, before getting into the cab.

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A/N: Eat up, that might be it for awhile. Hey, don't complain, college is rough!


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